Hong Kong: a Script
INT NIGHT:
YOUNG WOMAN
It's $150 an hour. Minimum one hour.
A young woman dangles a key attached to a plastic placard on her index finger.
MALE CUSTOMER
But the sign says $100.
YOUNG WOMAN
The sign is old.
MALE CUSTOMER
Bullshit, I was here last month. It was $100.
YOUNG WOMAN
Well, I'm the one at the reception, and I'm the one who has the take your cum soaked sheets for washing. You two want the room or not?
MALE CUSTOMER
It's a rip off. For that room?
She tosses the key onto the counter nonchalantly.
YOUNG WOMAN
You want it or not? I hear they have rooms available at The Peninsula.
Male customer, a young man dressed in tatty kitchen uniform, picks up the key, throws down the money, and makes for the stairs with his female companion, a girl dressed in an office pantsuit.
MALE CUSTOMER
Two hours.
She picks up the money, puts two $100 notes in a metal money box. She then pulls out a stack of notes from her pocket, and adds the remaining $100 to the stack. She turns and shouts towards the bead curtain behind her where the noise from the TV is coming from.
YOUNG WOMAN
Ma, I just made another $100.
MA
Put it in the money box.
YOUNG WOMAN
No, I told you, Grandma said if I manage to get tips from customers I get to keep it for my study trip.
MA
That didn't sound like he was giving a tip.
YOUNG WOMAN
What's the difference. You know that girl spits it out all over the floor and never cleans it up properly. She's probably got a maid at home.
MA
Well your Grandma says that her arthritis is playing up, and she hasn't done any of the rooms today. I washed the sheets, but someone's got to hang them up to dry.
YOUNG WOMAN
Okay, I'll do it now. Can you watch the front?
MA
No, I've already covered your dad's shift, and done his mum's job. Just keep an eye out from the roof when you hang up the sheets.
The young woman makes her way up the stairs, and waits on the landing, to allow a couple coming down the stairs to pass. He is overweight and ugly, in a ill-fitting suit with slicked-back hair and a gold chain. She has her hair in pigtails and wears a Japanese schoolgirl uniform. The man shouts back as he makes his way down the stairs.
SECOND MALE CUSTOMER
Leave the key on the counter?
YOUNG WOMAN
Yeh. (Then under her breath), stingy peasant.
She makes her way to the roof, and spots her younger brother leaning on the edge, smoking a cigarette. She pulls out a sheet from the machine, shakes it out and begins hanging it up.
YOUNG WOMAN
Little bro, you said you had a lot of homework.
BROTHER
I do.
YOUNG WOMAN
Then what your doing up here?
BROTHER
The woman in the room downstairs was getting fucked too hard, it was too noisy I couldn't concentrate.
YOUNG WOMAN
Just listen to some music.
BROTHER
I can't concentrate with music.
YOUNG WOMAN
Well you got to do something. You want to mess up your grades again? You want to end up running this place? You know that it's falling to pieces and we barely get enough customers to pay the money we owe uncle.
BROTHER
You know this place might not be that bad, we could renovate. Like those places you see online.
YOUNG WOMAN
Yeh? With what money? And for who? Who, apart from these losers, do you know wants to travel by here to fuck?
BROTHER
So, what? The guys that you dream of fucking are winners? Where? In Mid Levels? In fucking Europe? They got bigger wallets?
YOUNG WOMAN
They got bigger intellects. They bigger dreams.
BROTHER
And they got bigger dicks?
YOUNG WOMAN
(Laughing) Fuck you.
Headlights pierce the darkness below on the street, and she looks down to see a truck pull up outside. The sound of vehicle doors opening and closing, the flash of a lighter, and the glow of a lit cigarettes. She tuts, and makes for the stairs.
YOUNG WOMAN
Just do your homework.
She walks down the stairs flight by flight, and each time she passes each landing, she hears the sound of customers in their rooms. First landing...
VOICE OF A MALE
Does this shitty television stream from phones?
VOICE OF A FEMALE
Why do you always need porn to get hard?
Second landing...
VOICE OF A FEMALE
Can we try?
VOICE OF MALE
Is that what he used to do to you?
VOICE OF FEMALE
No. His dick was too big.
VOICE OF MALE
You pig.
Third landing...
VOICE OF MALE
I had chicken essence. I can go all night.
She reaches for the bottom of the stairs and recoils a little, but composes herself before anyone can see.
YOUNG MAN
Hi.
YOUNG WOMAN
Hi.
YOUNG MAN
Three hours.
YOUNG WOMAN
Okay.
YOUNG MAN
Can I pay when I leave?
YOUNG WOMAN
Okay.
She looks at him, and he looks back at her. She then turns to look at his companion, a plain but pretty girl.
YOUNG MAN
So.
YOUNG WOMAN
So?
YOUNG MAN
(Wryly) Can we have a key?
YOUNG WOMAN
(A little flustered) Of course. Room 2C.
She pulls out a key from her pocket, and backs against the wall, to let them pass. They climb the stairs, and then she makes her way back to the front desk.
MA
You didn't tell them your new room rate.
YOUNG WOMAN
Huh?
MA
And, it's money up front.
YOUNG WOMAN
Don't worry, he'll pay.
MA
Did you finish hanging the sheets?
YOUNG WOMAN
No, I came down to help them check in.
MA
Then why you sitting down? Admit it, you forgot.
YOUNG WOMAN
Okay, okay. You're so long winded.
The young woman climbs the stairs, nonchalantly walking past the sounds of groaning and television as she passes each landing. She pulls out a box of cigarettes from her pocket, as she reaches the top. She walks past the washing machine, towards the ledge where her brother was before. She lights up, and takes a long contemplative draw. From her back pocket, she pulls out a rolled up notebook, which has a pencil tucked into the roll.
On the street below she hears the front door swing shut, and then the sound of footsteps walking away into the darkness. She takes another draw of her cigarette, and then is a little startled by a knock on the roof door, behind her. She swings around, and sees the young man.
YOUNG WOMAN
You can't come up here.
YOUNG MAN
Sorry.
He steps out onto the roof anyway.
YOUNG WOMAN
Where's your girl?
YOUNG MAN
She left. We broke up.
YOUNG WOMAN
I don't need your life story.
YOUNG MAN
You asked.
YOUNG WOMAN
Why'd she leave? You booked three hours.
YOUNG MAN
I thought you don't want my life story?
YOUNG WOMAN
I don't.
YOUNG MAN
If you must know, she got pissed because she said I was flirting with you.
YOUNG WOMAN
(Trying to be indignant, but blushing) Ha.
She turns away from him, and takes another draw on the cigarette. He takes this as an invitation to join her at the ledge.
YOUNG MAN
Each time I come, I've seen you writing. What do you write about?
YOUNG WOMAN
You've been watching me?!
YOUNG MAN
You're a writer?
She put out her cigarette on the ledge, turns away, towards the door.
YOUNG WOMAN
Come down when you're ready to check out.
YOUNG MAN
I write too.
YOUNG WOMAN
Okay...
YOUNG MAN
What, so you see a van driver, and you think, he must be illiterate.
YOUNG WOMAN
I've got work to do.
She walks towards the door.
YOUNG MAN
The sheets?
YOUNG WOMAN
Huh?
YOUNG MAN
You told your mother you'd do the sheets. Sorry, I overheard. Your mum's very loud (smiles)
She makes an awkward turn for the washing machine, and pulls out a wet sheet and begin hanging it up. He goes up to the machine and pulls out another sheet to help her.
YOUNG MAN
Tell me about what you write about.
YOUNG WOMAN
And why would I do that?
YOUNG MAN
Because I know you want to.
YOUNG WOMAN
Why do you think I would want to?
YOUNG MAN
Okay, we can pretend that you don't want to to tell me. And I can pretend I wasn't flirting with you. Or, we can save ourselves some time, and you can stop pretending that you don't want to talk to me.
Young woman pauses for a second, then raises a corner of her mouth into a smile, before stopping herself.
YOUNG MAN
So what do you write about?
YOUNG WOMAN
It's new, so I don't really know how to talk about it.
He pauses, leaving a tension that he hopes she'll fill.
YOUNG WOMAN
It's about a woman.
YOUNG MAN
I love female protagonists.
YOUNG WOMAN
She lives in a big apartment, with floor to ceiling windows, that overlook the mountains, the kind you see in architectural magazines.
She pauses to tracks his eyes for a reaction. But he again leaves a silence for her to fill.
YOUNG WOMAN
She writes for a living, and her debut book has become an international bestseller. She's used her royalty from the book to buy the apartment using cash.
He looks at him again. This time he nods, to encourage her to go on.
YOUNG WOMAN
Her personal trainer has just left, she's having breakfast. She's waiting from a call from her PA, about the first class flight her publisher has booked her for a promotional tour that begins in New York. She's staying at the Plaza Hotel, overlooking Central Park.
She pauses and looks out into the darkness in the street below.
YOUNG MAN
Where's the character conflict?
YOUNG WOMAN
She has none.
They stand in silence for a little while.
YOUNG MAN
Do you have back exit?
YOUNG WOMAN
The character?
YOUNG MAN
No, this hotel.
YOUNG WOMAN
Yeh, why?
YOUNG MAN
You want to come with me to get some petrol?
YOUNG WOMAN
Sure.
TO BE CONTINUED…
